The opportunity for personal development is one of the more important variables in personnel selection and retention today. Training and education, in what the employee is interested in learning, is one of the key factors in retention and motivation. Employers who pay for classes, conferences, and professional associations encourage staff growth and ensure staff motivation. One of my clients, a mid-sized manufacturing company in Romulus, Michigan was committed to becoming a learning organization and to the ongoing professional growth of staff.

They paid for classes employees took, regardless of topic, because they believed they had better employees when employees chose to learn and develop their knowledge. At this same company, a press supervisor and a press operator shared with me that they were having trouble applying the team development skills they were learning from me at work. Their local Rotary Club and their Little League Baseball team were benefiting, however. As the company gradually changed its culture, the practice they had in team building within the outside organizations bore fruit within the company. So, cross-fertilization will benefit your organization in the long run.

I don’t think many will argue with me about the importance of staff development. The important twist, however, is to allow staff members to determine the areas in which they want education and training. These ideas will help you increase staff motivation by providing opportunities for development.

In conjunction with each staff person and their supervisor, create a Performance Development Plan which is reviewed quarterly.

Offer regular, active assistance to enable employees to carry out their plans. An example is to monitor topics about which many employees seek information and offer classes and learning opportunities in these areas. Ensure that supervisors are sitting down with employees quarterly and that people are making progress on their plan. Use slow months in your business as opportunities for staff development.

Pay for classes, conferences, books, and other learning opportunities for all staff. Ask staff to regularly visit customers to learn more about their needs from your organization.

Read books or see videos together as a staff. Schedule time to discuss what people are learning from the reading. Use the reading to develop new ideas and approaches. At TechSmith Corporation (the developers of SnagIt and Camtasia software for multimedia screen capture), the marketing staff regularly selects and reads books which will help them develop their marketing skills.

Schedule meetings which span several departments or two layers of management in your organization. Use these meetings as opportunities to teach employees about your business.

Ask various people to represent your department at company meetings. Employees will expand their outlook, feel important and expand their knowledge about the business.

Schedule people into assignments that stretch their skills and cause them to learn.

Provide cross-training opportunities so that staff members learn all of the jobs in their work areas. You’ll increase your flexibility and theirs as well.

Use promotions and lateral assignments to further develop staff skills.

Eliminate jobs that are repetitive and that have a deadly sameness day in and day out. Think about what is happening to the minds, the talents, the interest and the flexibility of the people who do them. Your staff deserves better than this.